Although the Maori had no formal system of civil or criminal law, they maintained social order through the tapu system of proh

Tribal Organization

The Maori lived in extended family units organized into subtribes and tribes. The extended family unit, the “whanau,” “consisted of three or four generation levels and might number as many as thirty persons. ^[4] In daily life, the whanau was a self sufficient and self contained group. Each whanau had separate facilities for “sleeping, cooking, storing and assembling” and spent the day working together.^[5] Each whanau had the right to use and cultivate certain lands and to fish certain tribal waters. ^[6] At the end of the day, the whanau combined the fruits of their labors, storing all food and tools in the whanau’s common storehouse. Marriage typically brought the woman into the whanau of her husband, though she also retained membership to her birth whanau. If, however, a woman of high rank married a lower ranking man, the man would be brought into the whanau of his wife. Children belonged to the whanau in which they were raised, usually, their father’s. ^[7] Children were raised by every adult member of the whanau and, indeed, the Maori term for father also means uncle, as the Maori term for mother also means aunt.^[8]

When family group became too large to be considered a whanau, it became a hapu, or subtribe. “The hapu was the basic political unit within Maori society, consisting of a number of whanau.” ^[9] A hapu might also be formed when an existing hapu became too large. In such a case, members of the hapu, led by a younger son of a prominent family would move away to another part of the tribal land to set up another hapu. Forming a hapu, required the consent of the larger tribe, or iwi. The iwi would dedicate tribal land to the hapu for its use.^[10] Additionally, the hapu could only be formed if a subchief could be identified.^[11] The hapu all lived in one village which was fenced off from other hapu.^[12] More will be said, in the following sections, on the selection and powers of the subchiefs and chiefs.

Because the whanau were generally self-sufficient, the most important role of the hapu was to provide for the common defense, through fortification of the village and maintenance of alliances with other hapu in the iwi. A fortified hapu village was known as a “pa maori.” Generally, only a section of the village was fortified, serving as a safe haven for members of the hapu during times of war.^[13] The hapu also protected itself by forming alliances with other hapu . Although related hapu generally stayed on “amicable terms and co-operated with each other in defense, there were times when they would quarrel and fight with one another.” ^[14]

The iwi, or tribe, is the largest organized group in Maori society. All hapu in the iwi traced their ancestry back to a common ancestor. The iwi was identified by its territorial boundaries and was led by the ariki, or chief, who was also the subchief of one of the hapu. In providing for the defense of the iwi, an ariki might call upon its “waka” tie to another iwi. Iwi with waka ties to one another all claim ancestors that arrived on the same canoe. Though loose ties at best, such alliances could be useful in times of war.^[15]
Primogenitor

Within the family groups, subtribes, and tribes, primogenitor was the mechanism by which all tribal standing was determined. Through primogenitor, the population was divided into two main classes, the people in those classes were accorded their standing within the community, and the chiefs of the hapu and iwi were chosen. To determine seniority in the hapu and iwi, careful tribal genealogies were kept, recording “chiefly descent from the leaders of the crews of the voyaging canoes which had landed in the country” hundreds of years before. ^[16] The family that could claim most direct ties through first born descendents to the iwi’s common ancestor was the most senior family and therefore accorded the most respect and power in the iwi.^[17] “Hereditary rank set the pattern for political authority so that the senior male of the senior lineage of the tribe was the tribal chief (ariki); the senior male in the senior line in each hapu was “hapu chief”; and a senior male was the head of his whanau.”^[18] Should the first born child in a senior family be a girl, she retained the title that would have been given her had she been male, but the power to lead the people would pass to her closest male relative.^[19] Choosing a leader strictly by means of birth was not the most effective means of ensuring quality tribal leadership. If the ariki proved unable to lead the people, a younger male relative would be chosen by the people to act in his sted.^[20] The displaced ariki would retain his birth title and the prestige associated with it.^[21]

The ariki was the public face of the iwi. Other tribes accessed the iwi’s strength and character based on the actions of the ariki. Therefore it was vital to the prosperity and, indeed, the survival of the iwi that the ariki possess the necessary characteristics to protect the people. “The principally cherished qualifications in a chief are indominitable courage and generosity.”^[22] In order to boost the esteem in which the iwi is held, the ariki was expected to lavishly entertain ariki of other tribes. During these visits, the ariki had to “expend a quantity of presents on his visitors, consisting of dresses, canoes, and large quantities of provisions, various in kind.” ^[23] Doing so brought honor, not to the ariki himself, but to the iwi as a whole. The majority of the gifts given to foreign leaders by the ariki were procured from the people, in what modern observers would consider a tax. To refuse to provide the ariki with adequate provision would lay the tribesperson open to public ridicule and possibly a “muru” raid.^[24] The process of “muru” will be discuss in detail in later sections.

Because the ariki could lose his power over the people, if they chose not to follow him, in times of peace and of war, the ariki led by example. The ariki had to be a “toa,” an extraordinarily courageous warrior, himself, in order to effectively lead his people onto the field of battle. The chief of a fighting unit usually stayed in the rear of the company, where he would rally his men. Ariki in this position, were known “to have stopped many a panic or flight simply by thrusting their spears into the ground or by announcing that they would retreat no further.”^[25] The power of the fighting chief was such that “the mere wounding of a leader could cause his warriors to waver and retreat.” ^[26] In times of peace, the ariki organized projects for the improvement of the village and worked alongside his tribesmen. For example, when constructing a new tribal assembly hall, the ariki was the “initiator and coordinator of the works programme, promoting, stimulating, encouraging, attending (with the aid of the tohunga) to ritual ceremonies, and seeing that symbolisms from tribal history and tradition were incorporated in the carving of the building.”^[27] In daily life, the chief was expected to labor with his fellow tribesmen. The ariki was not a man of leisure, he had to provide for his own whanau, while working to maintain the prowess of the iwi.

Class System

The Maori people differentiated one another on the basis of a strict class system. With the exception of losing one’s status by becoming a slave, there was no movement within the classes. Membership in a class was inherited based on the status of the parents. Rangatira, loosely defined as “chiefly rank,” corresponds to the European notion of aristocracy and was the highest ranking class in Maori society. The rangatira were noted for treating each other with “a good deal of punctiliousness and etiquette, more especially during any function, social or political.”^[28] Anyone who was not rangatira, was “ware” or “tutua,” which is a deprecatory term denoting low birth. Through the generations a family could slip into the ranks of the ware by consistently marrying people of lower status.^[29] Given that nearly everyone could lay claim to chiefly ancestry, however, no one considered himself of the ware class. The term “ware” always referred to someone else!^[30] The lowest class among the Maori was the “taurekareka,” the slave. Tribespeople of other villages, taken captives during war, were made slaves of the victorious chiefs and were owned absolutely by the chiefs.^[31] Both men and women were taken captive in war, and were claimed as slaves by the victorious chiefs when the chief threw a mat or mantle around the individual.^[32] If lesser chiefs each claimed the same person as a slave, the person was usually killed to end the dispute.^[33] After being taken captive, a slave’s life was always in jeopardy. Part of Maori warfare included eating the enemies they had killed in battle. As part of the enemy nation, a slave “was ever liable to be knocked on the head and consigned to the oven when food supplies ran short.”^[34] While he lived, however, a slave’s life was not physically hard. The slaves did menial work for their masters, such as cooking and burden-bearing, activities prohibited to chiefs. “As a general rule, they ate well, were forthright in their speech, were kindly treated, and were not expected to overwork themselves.”^[35] Slaves could marry tribe-members, and there are several accounts of slaves marrying the chief’s daughter. Although the slave could never become a ware or rangatira, any children produced with a tribe member were full ranking members of the tribe. Slaves did not run away, in part because they would have nowhere to go. To their surviving family members, their enslaved brethren were already dead. In this way, the slave’s family members, having recently been defeated in battle were saved the trouble of having to “undertake costly expeditions in order to either liberate the captured kinsmen or to avenge ill-treatment of them.”^[36] If the slave did escape and return to his family, a heavy cloud of shame would surround him and all his descendants.^[37]

The tohunga, experts, were a class apart, existing completely outside of the rangatira and ware hierarchy. There were many different kinds of tohunga. “A tohunga matatuhi is a seer, but a tohunga whaihanga is a carpenter or canoe-maker, and a tohunga ta moko is a tattooing artist.”^[38] Lower class tohunga practiced black magic. The upper order tohunga were priestly experts selected as youths for training in religion, cosmogony, and preservation of tribal lore. The tohunga “occupied the place of the doctor, the military leader, the agricultural expert, and many others.”^[39] He was consulted as to all important matters of tribal life.

Central to understanding Maori social sanctions are the concepts of “tapu” and “mana.” Tapu can best be understood as something so sacred that touching it is prohibited. “The term always implies a prohibition...a tapu place is a prohibited place; a tapu person is a person who must be kept aloof from others.”^[40] Mana is an inner power. Like tapu, mana is partially inherited in varying degrees based on the laws of primogeniture but unlike tapu, it is capable of being increased or decreased by the actions of the individual. “A person could acquire mana through displaying prowess in warfare and being industrious...However, a person’s mana could fall if the individual abused their talents and skills... and through insults and injuries inflicted by others.”^[41]

Tapu and mana are concepts deeply intertwined with Maori religious beliefs. Both attributes were given to the individual by the gods. If an individual disregarded the rules of tapu, the gods would no longer protect him. The Maori relied on the gods’ protection. Stripped of it, the Maori was susceptible to all shafts of black magic. His luck would fail and he would fall ill or die. The only remedy for a person who broke a tapu prohibition was to beg a tohunga to lift the blight and return him to a “noa,” or purified state.^[42]

Several people in Maori society were, themselves, tapu as a result of their high status. The ariki was tapu, as was the tohunga. The traditional greeting for an ariki reflected the power of his tapu status. Chiefs were welcomed with the greeting, “Haere mai te mana, haere mai te tapu, haere mai te wehi.” Translated, this greeting reads, “Welcome to power, welcome to sanctity, welcome to dread.”^[43]

It is important, at this point, to ensure that the distinction is made between being tapu, and breaking a tapu prohibition. The tapu person, such as the ariki, was himself sacred. He could not cook food or bear burdens himself. Anything he touched became tapu and could not be touched by ordinary persons. For example, an ariki could not share a cup with anyone because the cup he touched was tapu and for a non-tapu person to touch the cup would cause that person to break a tapu prohibition.^[44] The person who broke the tapu prohibition, unlike the tapu person himself, was abandoned by the gods and left to fend for himself in a hostile world.

The ariki used tapu prohibitions to conserve the resources of the tribe. For instance, if a seabed ran out of mussels the ariki would channel the spirit of the gods into that seabed, declaring it tapu. “That area would then be tapu to the community, prohibiting them from collecting mussels until supplies were replenished.”^[45] Important tribal objects, such as the tribe’s war canoe, were also tapu and the public was prohibited from touching them until the prohibition was lifted. The first structure built in a new village was also tapu. As part of the purification ceremony, a high ranking young woman was asked to stand in the entryway of the building while the tohunga performed the chant necessary to render the village noa. The whole hapu would attend the ceremony, after which a celebration would be held in the new building, honoring the girl for the part she played in freeing the village of the blight.^[46]

Maori children learned of tapu prohibitions, the way European children learn fairytales. One Maori child recalled his grandmother telling him the story of a woman who had unknowingly broken a tapu prohibition by picking flax from a tapu place on the coastline. Only moments after breaking the prohibition the woman was washed into the ocean and to her death. Out of all of the women on the beach, she was the only one caught by the wave. After hearing the story the boy asked his grandmother: “if no one saw her do it, how do you know that she took the flax?” The boy’s grandmother replied. “Was she not the only one taken? No one would have touched the flax but her.” The woman’s punishment was evidence of her guilt and was proof enough for the boy that the penalty for breaking a tapu prohibition would be swift and severe.

An interesting side note must be made of the role of slaves in the world of tapu prohibitions. Slavery robbed a Maori of his mana and eliminated any degree of tapu sacredness granted to him at birth. In effect, being taken captive made the Maori slave non-existent to the gods. Because he didn’t exist, he was free from all tapu prohibitions.^[47] No supernatural consequence would follow from a slave breaking a tapu prohibition. Slaves were thus “at liberty to perform many things forbidden their superiors, such as cooking, carrying burdens, and various menial duties advantageous to the tribe, with the result that such slaves were generally highly valued by their captors.” ^[48]

Like tapu, the concept of mana also acted as a social control in Maori society. Although no supernatural sanctions attended the loss of mana, a Maori who lost mana, lost esteem in society and was one step closer to being considered ware. Additionally when an individual lost mana, the collective mana of the community decreased. The Maori who allowed himself to lose mana, felt ashamed in the community. Therefore, great social pressure resided in the Maori to punish insults, to act bravely in battle, and to respond generous to kindnesses. In this way, the individual’s mana would increase, raising the esteem in which the community was held.^[49]

Public Opinion: the Marae Open Forum

The Whare whakairo, the carved meeting house, was the center of Maori social life. The most intricately carved building in the village, the whare whakairo, served as the forum for “the village assembly at day’s end, entertainment of visitors, and discussion of tribal affairs.”^[50] During the tribal meeting held at the whare whakairo, the institution of “marae” took place. Marae was an open forum discussion, at which any adult member of the village would speak about the issues facing the tribe.^[51] Maori speech-giving was highly elaborate and a fine speech could increase an individual’s mana. A distinctive feature of Maori social life, all matters, even those over which the whanau had exclusive control, were discussed openly during marae.^[52] Marae took place at both the hapu and the iwi tribal meetings. The effect of marae as a means of social control cannot be underestimated. The force of public opinion in Maori society had “a crushing effect on the recalcitrant.”^[53] The social pressure exerted during marae shaped the way that the Maori people lived their lives. No one wanted his shortcomings to be a topic of conversation at the next marae.

Additionally, any statements made during marae had special binding force for the Maori, akin to our understanding of an oral contract.^[54] “Once a person spoke during marae, he committed himself and there was no withdrawal.”^[55] Given the binding nature of public statements, the chief was especially careful about positions he took during marae. Since the ariki could be displaced if the people stopped listening to him, marae increased the likelihood that the chief would make decisions in line with the public opinion and the greater good.

At hapu marae, marriages between tribal members were arranged and announced. Maori youth were encouraged to flirt and engage in romantic interludes while young. Sexual intercourse between unmarried youth was seen as a normal part of growing up.^[56] Among the ware class, such love affairs sometimes became marriages if they lasted long enough and neither family objected.^[57] In other cases the parties to be married and their families announced their intentions at the tribal meeting. Either party or their elders could arrange the marriage and at marae the whole hapu would get a say in the matter.^[58] As part of the betrothal ceremony, the hapu would ask the girl if she wanted to marry the man in question, if she said yes she became “puhi,” a bethrothed girl. ^[59] Polygomy was common for the ariki, but the average Maori practiced sequential monogamy.^[60] The married couple was expected to remain monogamous during the duration of the marriage. If, however, either party wanted to leave the marriage, a tohunga could perform a “separation of Sky and Earth” ceremony, divorcing the parties.^[61] The woman, who was still a member of her birth hapu would simply return to it, hoping for better matrimonial luck next time. The consequences of adultery will be discussed in the following sections.

Utu
Utu was the first of two formal mechanisms that the Maori used to obtain justice. Utu was a means of returning parties to the status quo after an event, be it good or bad. “Utu governed relationships when a breach of tapu occurred or where mana was increased or lost through the actions of an individual or group.”^[62] For example, if a neighbor gave a Maori a gift, both parties knew that utu required the Maori to give a similar gift in return. By giving a gift in response, the Maori did not lose mana and the status quo was maintained. If, however, a neighbor insulted a Maori, both parties knew that attacking the neighbor’s village was the appropriate utu reaction. In response to an injury, utu required that the Maori inflict greater harm than he had received.^[63] Because of the requirement for a heightened response to injury, the utu system made the Maori think twice before injuring another party. Because the Maori were primarily concern with maintaining the mana of the hapu, the whole hapu, not the wronged individual, had standing to call for an utu response to an inter-hapu event. The only exception to the public nature of utu enforcement was in the case of murder, as described below.

An interesting element of utu was its cyclical nature. One utu response begat another, so that theoretically gift giving never ended and the cycle of violence between parties would spiral out of control.^[64] This consequence was avoided however, by the party’s agreeing to end the utu. Such an agreement was often sealed by the hapu of the original culprit offering a “puhi,” or bride, to the other hapu chief.^[65] The practice led to the popular Maori saying, “ ‘He whakahou rongo wahine he tatau pounamu,’ Peace brought about by women is an enduring one.”^[66]

Utu responses, however, did not have to be immediate. Recompense for a wrong could be exacted generations after the wrong occurred. In one case, a debtor creditor relationship existed between two Maori tribes for eight generations before utu was given.^[67] If a wronged Maori, could not respond adequately to an injury received, he would “extend his arm above his head and close the fingers as if clutching something.”^[68] Through this gesture the Maori indicated that he intended to make utu for the event at a later date. If the injured individual was of a weak hapu, which could not afford to send a war party to the offender’s village, the utu response was likely to be creative and non-violent. Examples of non-violent utu responses ranged from building a new house, naming it after the offending party, and then burning it down, to writing a scandalous song about the offender, to digging up the bones of the offender’s relatives and using them as diving implements.^[69] Such responses were sure to bring reprisal from the stronger tribe, but nonetheless utu response was necessary for a hapu to retain its mana.

Utu was the mechanism by which tohunga were rewarded for their services. After a tohunga performed a service for an individual, utu require that the individual give the tohunga an appropriate gift. Such gifts were not considered payment, a concept that was highly insulting in Maori society.^[70] If the present given as a utu response was inadequate, “nothing was said in the presence of the giver, but, later on... general expression was given to the receiver’s dissatisfaction which, when reported to his own clan, tended to the disadvantage of the man in question.”^[71] Thus utu and marae worked together to ensure that economic activity in Maori life proceeded smoothly.

Utu was nearly always the justification for raiding neighboring hapus. In one utu raid case, a Maori man fishing in a canoe caught a red fish called a gunard. At the same time, he saw a man liberally daubed in red paint walking along the beach. The fisherman commented “that man is like this fish.” Unfortunately for the fisherman, the man in question was a high ranking chief and one of the other fishermen on board was his relative. To compare a chief to food was considered highly insulting. As utu for the remark, the “jester’s village was attacked and destroyed.”^[72]

The utu for murder was gruesome. If a Maori was killed “treacherously,” his murderer would be hunted, captured, and tortured to death by the bereaved family. Torture included the murder victim’s widow drinking the murderer’s blood as he died and the murderer having his eyes torn out and eaten.^[73] Only those who committed treacherous killings were subjected to this punishment. Accidental deaths as well as death in battle were treated entirely differently by the Maori. Interestingly, this author could only find one case of treacherous murder in the volumes of Maori research. Perhaps the constant state of warfare in which the Maori lived and the persistent food shortages, taken together led to a low murder rate. The strong blood ties between the members of the whanau, hapu, and iwi, may also have contributed to this phenomenon. Whatever the cause, murder does not seem to have been a crime that the Maori spent much time dealing with.

Muru

Muru was the most formal method of public justice available in Maori society. A subsection of utu, muru varied from utu in several important ways. First, muru was only used for transgressions of Maori “law,” never for instances of positive Maori behavior, like gift giving. Second, after muru was carried out in response to an incident, that matter was closed. Muru was not cyclical and the party against whom muru was taken had to quietly accept their punishment.^[74] Finally, the purpose of muru was to punish the transgressor for his actions, not to restore any sense of mana within the community.

Like utu, muru was limited by the fact that it could only be applied between members of several villages in the same tribe. Neither utu nor muru had any effect in inter-tribal violations, the only response to which was war. Unlike utu, however, the muru process could only be invoked by the victim of the crime or a relative of that person.^[75] It is interesting to note, however, that while the muru process could only be started by a wronged individual, the cause was quickly adopted by the hapu as a whole and punishment was inflicted not only on the wrongdoer, but also on his family and sometimes his hapu.

Protocal in muru matters was highly formalized. The most important aspect in this procedure was known as whakawa. Whakawa was a marae discussion, which involved an investigation of the matter by the whole tribe.^[76] During whakawa, people on both sides of the issue gave speeches, which included dialogue of accusation and investigation. The whakawa concluded with the tribe as a whole rendering a decision or a judgment on the matter.^[77]

If the party was determined to be guilty of the wrongdoing, the next step in the muru process was the determination of whether to send a large or small “taua,” or plundering party. The size of the taua party depended on the status of the individual.^[78] A highly respected member of a tribe would be visited by a large taua, whereas a member of the ware class only had to deal with a small taua party. In this way, being visited by a large muru taua, was considered a great honor. If a Maori found guilty of a crime was not visited by any muru taua at all, so much the greater was his shame. He was not even worth plundering. The honor connected with receiving a large muru taua is best expressed in the Maori phrase “clouds only settle on the peaks of the mountains,”^[79] meaning that only those who are most important must suffer through trouble.

The muru taua would arrive at the home of the transgressor’s whanau, sometimes at a prearranged date. In one case, muru was administered where a villager’s servant accidentally hit the chief’s leg with a garden hoe. After guilt was determined, the chief sent one of his slaves to the villager’s home “to enquire if it would be equally convenient, if he were to be plundered on the following Monday.”^[80] When the muru taua arrives, it’s members would stand outside the home and make fiery speeches to the crowd about the party’s guilt. Often the head of the wrongdoer’s whanau would then greet the party and admit the wrongdoer’s guilt. Members of the whanau would then lay gifts out for the muru taua. If the whanau did not offer gift to the taua, the taua would enter the home and take anything they wanted.^[81] Once enough gifts were either given or procured to satisfy the taua’s sense of justice, the taua would forgive the transgression by eating a feast with the members of the whanau.^[82] All spoils taken from the plundered house were split equally among the members of the muru taua.^[83]

Wronged spouses routinely called for muru if to revenge adultery. In such cases, the muru punishment often took a slightly different form. In addition to sending a taua to raid the lover’s home, the wronged husband would be allowed to strike the lover once across the face with a club. The lover, however, had the right to duck the blow. Whether or not the lover was hit, the husband’s honor was considered satisfied and no further violence was permitted.^[84] A wronged wife was also permitted to call for muru if her husband was cheating on her, but she was not allowed to strike her husband’s paramour.

Muru was also used a response to accidental death or injury of a warrior. If a warrior or another important member of society injured himself, he and his family would be subjected to a muru taua, because through his own carelessness, the injured person was now unavailable to assist the community as a whole.^[85] If the relatives of a deceased person were determined at whakawa to be guilty of allowing the death to occur they would be subjected to an alternative form of the muru taua. In addition to taking their possessions, the muru taua would express their anger and grief by “beating [the family] with sticks or with their hands.”^[86] In this way the muru taua showed how deeply they respected the deceased.